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Innovative Marine Aquariums

55° of Coolness - Micro-reefs 2g Temperate Tank


ccapasso

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Coming soon...

 

Decided to take the plunge into the cold! Purchased a temperate tank from Micro-Reefs.com. Mike has been a great guy to work with. Answered tons of questions and worked out a hell of a deal on the tank :).

 

 

Equipment:

  • 2 gallon Micro-Reefs black background acrylic tank
  • AquaClear 20 filter pre-drilled for Micro-Chiller
  • CoolWorks Micro-Chiller with a/c power adapter
  • CoolWorks controller for Micro-Chiller
  • AA Aquarium Digital Thermometer w/alarm
  • Coralife Aqualight mini T5 fixture

 

Livestock:

 

  • Fluffy Sculpin
  • Strawberry anemone
  • Sitka Shrimp
  • Goose-Neck Barnacle Cluster
  • Light Bulb Tunicate
  • Aggregating Anemone
  • Mussel Cluster

 

I'll be getting all of my livestock from coldwatermarineaquatics.com. Talked to the guys there (Josh and Stu) and worked out the stock list. They have been extremely helpful and I look forward to purchasing from them soon.

 

This tank will reside in my office along with the Peacock tank.

 

Much more to come once things start to arrive :).

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Sounds like it's going to be a cool tank. I really liked the look of Jacobnano's tank a while back.

 

Not saying that you should follow that though, you could feel inspired to take it in a totally different direction!

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Stock list updated - Added Mussels.

 

 

It looks like the tank should ship today (hopefully). I'm guessing it will arrive early-mid next week.

 

Hopefully I can get something worked out with the guys at CWA and get things moving for this tank :).

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Small update:

 

There was a small error in shipping and it looks like the tank will now arrive on Monday of next week.

 

No worries on this end, as I still have plenty of time to plan things out.

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Alright, let's talk acclimating live rock and sand. I'm thinking I may have to go out and buy live rock and live sand. If I do this, it will likely come from a tropical tank instead of a temperate tank. I assume I can just start the tank at normal temp (75) with the rock and sand, and slowly drop it down to 55. Does that make sense?

 

I'm thinking if I do that, I should likely not kill off the bacteria.

 

If that works, I think I should have very little if any real "cycle" for this tank.

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Looks like everything is ok. Haven't had time to give a good look over but appears to be good.

 

All Wrapped Up:

uejJf0Z.jpg

 

Unwrapped:

lZo9Wr9.png

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Mr. Microscope

Neato! What are you stocking plans aside from muscles?

 

BTW, I've heard it can take up to six months to properly cycle cold water. Just an FYI. I think these things take a while to establish.

 

 

 

Edit: W'oh! Looked at that coldwatermarineaquatics.com. Really cool! Makes me want to explore cold water.

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Neato! What are you stocking plans aside from muscles?

 

BTW, I've heard it can take up to six months to properly cycle cold water. Just an FYI. I think these things take a while to establish.

 

 

 

Edit: W'oh! Looked at that coldwatermarineaquatics.com. Really cool! Makes me want to explore cold water.

Thanks!

 

Stocking plans are in first post but are as follows:

 

 

Livestock:

 

  • Fluffy Sculpin
  • Strawberry anemone
  • Sitka Shrimp
  • Goose-Neck Barnacle Cluster
  • Light Bulb Tunicate
  • Aggregating Anemone
  • Mussel Cluster

 

I've read that they can take a while to cycle and I'm really hoping that I can get my hands on some live rock and live sand from an existing temperate tank. If I do, I believe that should speed up if not kill off the cycle time.

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Micro-Reefs Aquariums

Wow,

 

The outside box looks like it went through a nuclear war! I do apologize about that Chris, none of my packages have never looked like that leaving my warehouse!

 

Your package went to San Diego, then Oregon through FedEx before being transferred over to UPS and making it to your home.

 

However, as you can see the inside was packaged nicely and very secured by me.

 

Your system looks beautiful on your office desk!

 

Small suggestion if you like, you can turn the chiller probe so the front has the black panel with the green light, it will alert you when the system the probe is on and also look match more in photos or to the eye because it is black.

 

Take a look at what it looks like with the black in the front, you may decide:

 

11gu03m.jpg

 

34epxmx.jpg

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Thanks all.

 

The tank isn't in its final spot yet. I just unpacked what I could before I had to take off.

 

I do have a couple of quick questions for you though Mike:

 

  1. Filter - With the ice probe in there, did you just remove the media basket that it came with? I'm not sure how I would run anything in that chamber with the probe in there (or if even necessary). Also, the intake tube of the filter, did you cut it so that it wasn't so long?
  2. Light - Did you remove the adjustable feet that came with the light? It looks like it in the picture but wanted to be sure.
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Micro-Reefs Aquariums

 

Thanks all.

 

The tank isn't in its final spot yet. I just unpacked what I could before I had to take off.

 

I do have a couple of quick questions for you though Mike:

 

  1. Filter - With the ice probe in there, did you just remove the media basket that it came with? I'm not sure how I would run anything in that chamber with the probe in there (or if even necessary). Also, the intake tube of the filter, did you cut it so that it wasn't so long?
  2. Light - Did you remove the adjustable feet that came with the light? It looks like it in the picture but wanted to be sure.

1. You will only use the foam filter at the bottom and not the charcoal. In place of the charcoal I used 1/2 unit chemipure that I have on our site. It wraps around the iceprobe and helped keep the tank clean and crisp blue.

 

2. Remove the adjustable feet they are for hanging this fixture as a refugium light on the side of a tank, not needed in this application.

 

Hope that helps out.....

 

MG

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Not much to update at this point.

 

I talked to Josh @ coldwatermarineaquatics and I think we have worked out how and what I'm going to order.

 

I'll end up doing two orders. The first will be small and also contain the live rock and sand. The second will be the rest of the corals and stuff and will likely be a month or so later.

 

Hopefully I'll have all the details worked out this week.

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Put an email into the guys at CWMA requesting pricing for 2 different shipments. Anxiously awaiting a response :).

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Islandoftiki

How exciting!

 

I would love to set one of these up, but we might be moving to Hawaii and you can't import hardly anything there. That's not to say that you can't do some cool things with tank there, and you're allowed do some collecting of livestock with a fishing license.

 

There are a number of people locally who go collect their own stuff for their cold water tanks right here off the Oregon coast.

 

I've seen a couple cold water nanos and they are really awesome in a totally different way than warm water. I can't wait to see yours come together.

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Micro-Reefs Aquariums

How exciting!

 

I would love to set one of these up, but we might be moving to Hawaii and you can't import hardly anything there. That's not to say that you can't do some cool things with tank there, and you're allowed do some collecting of livestock with a fishing license.

 

There are a number of people locally who go collect their own stuff for their cold water tanks right here off the Oregon coast.

 

I've seen a couple cold water nanos and they are really awesome in a totally different way than warm water. I can't wait to see yours come together.

You would be the only reefer on the island wearing a MICRO-REEFS T-SHIRT THAT SAYS, 55 F DEGREES OF COOLNESS.... :)

THAT IS IF YOU COULD PULL IT OFF....

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fretfreak13

Hey, another Micro-reefs tank near me! Mine's tropical though. lol

 

Just curious, Mike how many of your tanks are in Ohio that you can think of off the top of your head? LOL

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Thanks all!

 


Sadly, no news to report.

 

I'm trying not to get let down, but not having much luck with CWMA (coldwatermarineaquatics.com).

 

I've talked to them and emailed them regarding stocking and ordering. We worked out all of the details and I was told a quote was being worked up. I have yet to see anything and that was as of April 3rd.

 

I am leaving for vacation tomorrow and won't be back until Monday night so I will probably not be around much the next few days.

 

Here's hoping I get a response/update soon. Otherwise, I may have to figure out what to do.

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